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XL(4)			     Kernel Interfaces Manual			   XL(4)

NAME
     xl -- 3Com Etherlink XL and Fast Etherlink XL ethernet device driver

SYNOPSIS
     device miibus
     device xl

DESCRIPTION
     The  xl driver provides support for PCI ethernet adapters and embedded con-
     trollers based on the 3Com "boomerang" and "cyclone"  bus-master  Etherlink
     XL  chips.   This	includes  the 3c900-TP, 3c900-COMBO, 3c905-TX, 3c905-T4,
     3c905B-TP, 3c905B-T4 and 3c905B-TX, and  embedded	3c905-TX  and  3c905B-TX
     ethernet  hardware  in certain Dell Optiplex and Dell Precision desktop ma-
     chines, and certain Dell Latitude laptop docking stations.

     The Etherlink XL chips support built-in 10baseT, 10base2 and 10base5 trans-
     ceivers as well as an MII bus for	externally  attached  PHY  transceivers.
     The  3c905  series typically uses a National Semiconductor NS 83840A 10/100
     PHY for 10/100 Mbps support in full or half-duplex.   The	3c905B	adapters
     have  built-in  autonegotiation logic mapped onto the MII for compatibility
     with previous drivers.  Fast Etherlink XL adapters such as the 3c905-TX and
     3c905B-TX are capable of 10 or 100Mbps data rates in either  full	or  half
     duplex  and  can be manually configured for any supported mode or automati-
     cally negotiate the highest possible mode with a link partner.

     The xl driver supports the following media types:

     autoselect 	   Enable autoselection of the media type  and	options.
			   Note  that  this  option  is  only available with the
			   3c905 and  3c905B  adapters	with  external	PHYs  or
			   built-in  autonegotiation logic.  For 3c900 adapters,
			   the driver will choose the mode specified in the EEP-
			   ROM.  The user can change this by  adding  media  op-
			   tions to the /etc/rc.conf file.

     10baseT/UTP	   Set	10Mbps	operation.  The mediaopt option can also
			   be used to select either full-duplex  or  half-duplex
			   modes.

     100baseTX		   Set	100Mbps (fast ethernet) operation.  The mediaopt
			   option can also be used to select either  full-duplex
			   or half-duplex modes.

     10base5/AUI	   Enable  AUI	transceiver  (available  only  on  COMBO
			   cards).

     10base2/BNC	   Enable BNC coax transceiver (available only on  COMBO
			   cards).

     The xl driver supports the following media options:

     full-duplex	   Force full duplex operation

     half-duplex	   Force half duplex operation.

     Note  that  the  100baseTX media type is only available if supported by the
     adapter.  For more information on configuring this device, see ifconfig(8).

DIAGNOSTICS
     xl%d: couldn't map memory	A fatal initialization error has occurred.

     xl%d: couldn't map interrupt  A fatal initialization error has occurred.

     xl%d: device timeout  The device has stopped responding to the network,  or
     there is a problem with the network connection (cable).

     xl%d:  no memory for rx list  The driver failed to allocate an mbuf for the
     receiver ring.

     xl%d: no memory for tx list  The driver failed to allocate an mbuf for  the
     transmitter  ring	when allocating a pad buffer or collapsing an mbuf chain
     into a cluster.

     xl%d: command never completed!  Some commands issued to the 3c90x ASIC take
     time to complete: the driver is supposed to  wait	until  the  'command  in
     progress' bit in the status register clears before continuing.  In rare in-
     stances,  this  bit  may not clear.  To avoid getting caught in an infinite
     wait loop, the driver only polls the bit for a finite number of  times  be-
     fore giving up, at which point it issues this message.  This message may be
     printed  during  driver initialization on slower machines.  If you see this
     message but the driver continues to  function  normally,  the  message  can
     probably be ignored.

     xl%d: chip is in D3 power state -- setting to D0  This message applies only
     to 3c905B adapters, which support power management.  Some operating systems
     place  the 3c905B in low power mode when shutting down, and some PCI BIOSes
     fail to bring the chip out of this state before configuring it.  The 3c905B
     loses all of its PCI configuration in the D3 state, so if the BIOS does not
     set it back to full power mode in time, it won't be able  to  configure  it
     correctly.  The driver tries to detect this condition and bring the adapter
     back to the D0 (full power) state, but this may not be enough to return the
     driver  to  a fully operational condition.  If you see this message at boot
     time and the driver fails to attach the device as a network interface,  you
     will  have  to perform second warm boot to have the device properly config-
     ured.

     Note that this condition only occurs when warm booting from another operat-
     ing system.  If you power down your system prior to  booting  FreeBSD,  the
     card should be configured correctly.

     xl%d:  WARNING:  no  media options bits set in the media options register!
     This warning may appear when using the driver on some Dell Latitude docking
     stations with built-in 3c905-TX adapters.	For  whatever  the  reason,  the
     'MII available' bit in the media options register on this particular equip-
     ment  is not set, even though it should be (the 3c905-TX always uses an ex-
     ternal PHY transceiver). The driver will attempt to guess the proper  media
     type  based  on  the  PCI	device ID word.  The driver makes a lot of noise
     about this condition because the author considers it  a  manufacturing  de-
     fect.

SEE ALSO
     arp(4), netintro(4), ng_ether(4), ifconfig(8)

HISTORY
     The xl device driver first appeared in FreeBSD 3.0.

AUTHORS
     The xl driver was written by Bill Paul <wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu>.

FreeBSD 4.5			 August 16, 1998			   XL(4)
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